Movie Make-out

What does a professed former pimp have in common with a Jewish man with father issues? Both of them may have new movie ties to India, the country with the largest number of films made per year.

Hip hop rapper Snoop Dogg’s latest hit comes courtesy of the movie Singh is Kinng–which will get an Indian release in August–but the eponymous song has already made it to the Indian airwaves, and Cashmere Asia had posted two behind-the-scenes video clips on its YouTube site in advance of the music video’s debut yesterday.

In one of those clips, Snoop Dogg says that his collaboration with Kinng’s star Akshay Kumar and other Indian actors and actresses isn’t over. “I’m going to come over and do [hip hop] shows and do movies and have a good time with y’all,” he promises. “This is just the beginning. [We're] not done.”

Meanwhile, the NY Times takes a closer look at the deal director Steven Spielberg has pending with Reliance ADA Group, a Mumbai conglomerate. According to the article, the people involved in the talks say that DreamWorks is seeking up to $550 million in equity as well as a $400 million line of debt financing.

Industry insiders agree that Spielberg’s usual deal of 20% of a new movie’s gross from the first ticket sold is too rich for the publicly traded domestic film studios, who are tightening their belts due to the current credit crisis and slumping DVD sales. The most interesting bit however, is the question raised by writer Brooks Barnes, but not answered: Is Spielberg even still worth that much as a director and producer?

U.K. Director Plunders Own Country’s History Again for Next Flick
John Boorman, whose film career includes the rather sad Excalibur (yes, I am speaking of the ’80s version) and the rather terrifying Deliverance is ready to put into production a dream project of his about the life of Hadrian, the Roman emperor who built the wall between England and Scotland. If you are unaware that such a wall existed, then it’s completely evident that such a movie needs to be made. Principal photography is set to start next spring in Morocco, Rome, and Spain.

Warner Bros., Alcon Entertainment to Produce Live-Action/CGI Marvin the Martian
One of the producers named in the Variety article is Steve Crystal, who was the executive producer behind 2003’s The Missing. He has pitched the movie as “a Christmas story, with Marvin coming to Earth to destroy Christmas but being prevented from doing so when he’s trapped in a gift box.” No one else has been attached yet, so there’s a good chance this bad premise could be scrapped in favor of something else.

Also, hasn’t Warner Bros. learned its lesson yet with live-action/animated movies? Not that it can’t be done well (hello, Roger Rabbit!) but that it takes a very special story to do so. I’m not convinced that the B-list Warner Bros. toon has enough depth as a character to carry his own movie.

Only having seen the third film, I don’t really have much interest in this, but the trailer does look nicely ominous. I expect the fans will be ecstatic… (See the teaser in high definition at Moviefone.)

The official synopsis reads thusly:

Voldemort is tightening his grip on both the Muggle and wizarding worlds and Hogwarts is no longer the safe haven it once was. Harry suspects that dangers may even lie within the castle, but Dumbledore is more intent upon preparing him for the final battle that he knows is fast approaching. Together they work to find the key to unlock Voldemort’s defenses and, to this end, Dumbledore recruits his old friend and colleague, the well-connected and unsuspecting bon vivant Professor Horace Slughorn, whom he believes holds crucial information. Meanwhile, the students are under attack from a very different adversary as teenage hormones rage across the ramparts. Harry finds himself more and more drawn to Ginny, but so is Dean Thomas. And Lavender Brown has decided that Ron is the one for her, only she hadn’t counted on Romilda Vane’s chocolates! And then there’s Hermione, simpering with jealously but determined not to show her feelings. As romance blossoms, one student remains aloof. He is determined to make his mark, albeit a dark one. Love is in the air, but tragedy lies ahead and Hogwarts may never be the same again.

Blah blah blah blah blah… The sixth Harry Potter film, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, flies into theaters on November 21st.

Disney’s long overdue return to traditional animation is just over a year away: a teaser trailer for The Princess and the Frog is up at the film’s official site. The Jazz Age New Orleans-set update of the classic fairy tale (”The Frog Princess” by most accounts) will hop into theaters (ho ho ho, gotta love the puns) on Christmas, 2009. Man, that’s a long time from now.

Oh well, it looks gorgeous. If the animated bits from Enchanted are any indication of what they’ll do with this film, no matter how annoying faux-Cajun they go, I’ll be there just for the animation.

The Hollywood Reporter has broken the news that former New Line heads Bob Shaye and Lynne have lined up Isaac Asimov’s seminal science fiction classic, Foundation, for their first film after New Line’s absorption into Warner Bros and the formation of their new company, Unique Features, which has a three-year, first-look deal with Warners.

Unique’s plans to adapt the first book only and, if it’s a hit, make the second and third books in the original Foundation trilogy, as well. But the article notes the company plans to “move forward carefully.” Because of the complex philosophical themes in the book, “this is not a script you can knock out in six months,” Shaye said. (There is no screenwriter attached yet, anyway.)

For those unfamiliar with the books (such as myself), the Foundation trilogy (later expanded to seven books, after a gap of thirty-some years by Asimov with two more sequels and two prequels) spans hundreds of years, and each book features a new set of characters, with the trilogy “essentially tracking the rise and fall of civilizations.”

One of the best things about seeing trailers for the first time in a movie theater is that you don’t already know what movie you’re watching the trailer for. To that end, I want you to watch this without me actually telling you what movie it is…